Is it safe to play the Ottomas Family?

I was wondering if it would be safe to play the Ottomas family in the Sims 2 UC? I'm guessing so as it is fully patched (believe the glitch was fixed in the Seasons patch) but I'm being over cautious, I've got quite a nice neighbourhood running at the moment and don't fancy any corruption!

Comments

If this was a neighborhood you started after installing the UC, then it is safe. I tested it as the Ottomas is the easiest way to see if the game was truly patched or not as it's easily triggered.

If you had had Sims 2 and Seasons before you got the UC and this is a neighborhood you had saved from then, it would depend on if you created the neighborhood before or after you patched. The patch only fixes new neighborhoods. It did not fix already created neighborhoods. You would have to use a mod to terminate her pregnancy (killing and resurrecting may fix the issue) if the neighborhood was created before you patched Seasons.

I did a thing once where I took all the Ottomas family, aged them to adult, stripped off their hair, make-up, etc., and compared their faces side by side, both front and profile view. They actually do have a striking resemblance to each other, and none of the offspring are all that attractive. The parents' faces were structured in such a way that they just do not blend well when making children. In all the times I played the family, I found that the offspring could be made to look "okay" with the right hair, facial hair, glasses, and/or makeup. The twin toddlers were always exceptionally unattractive, though. I think it's because when they made the family, they kept randomizing the other kids until they came up with ones that looked okay.

Just out of curiosity, what would happen if you let the pregnancy come to term before the patch? I know it causes corruption, but what exactly happens? Why are the babies bad? I've never played the Ottomas family before, even the many years that I played TS2 on disc.

Just out of curiosity, what would happen if you let the pregnancy come to term before the patch? I know it causes corruption, but what exactly happens? Why are the babies bad? I've never played the Ottomas family before, even the many years that I played TS2 on disc.

"There is a known bug in the game that gives the twins a random father (and in some cases, a second biological mother) instead of listing Peter as the father. Their father is always a random Sim. It could be a townie, an NPC (e.g. the Repo-man or Grim Reaper), a child, a woman, or even a pet. This is addressed in the Seasons patch, but the patch will only fix instances of the family that are not yet loaded to the Neighborhood Family bin, haven't been moved in to the neighborhood, or the Neighborhood itself hasn't added the Weather secret sub-neighborhood. Also, sometimes the twins look deformed or come out with no eyes or nose or even other body parts. If the bug is left unattended, it may eventually cause neighborhood corruption, requiring the player to reset the neighborhood. "

This is from The Sims wiki. I never played the Ottomas family before it was patched, so I wouldn't know otherwise.

The first time I played the Ottomas family, they had beautiful little twins .... with black hair. I couldn't figure out where the black hair came from. Then I looked at the family tree and found that their "father" was this lovely dark-haired female Sim living elsewhere in the neighborhood (I was playing Riverblossom Hills).

Other people reported the family tree showing one of the neighborhood dogs as the father.

What was happening was an error in the ID code that signaled who the father was. It was set as a constant, and when you started your game, ANY Sim might randomly have that ID code rather than husband Pete Ottomas. I still have instructions on how to use SimPe to change the code from whoever to Pete, and did that until they fixed it with a patch.

I think that the reason why having a random Sim show up as the "father" was bad was that it could cause or contribute to neighborhood corruption. I honestly don't understand how exactly it works, all I know is that if your neighborhood or Sims became corrupted, the whole neighborhood could eventually become unplayable. It was also why you weren't supposed to delete Sims from the family bin. Here is a link that has some information about it and how to avoid it, if you're curious.

I think that the reason why having a random Sim show up as the "father" was bad was that it could cause or contribute to neighborhood corruption. I honestly don't understand how exactly it works, all I know is that if your neighborhood or Sims became corrupted, the whole neighborhood could eventually become unplayable. It was also why you weren't supposed to delete Sims from the family bin. Here is a link that has some information about it and how to avoid it, if you're curious.

Oh, I know all about corruption and have read that article already. I asked specifically about the Ottomas problem because someone earlier up in the thread said that you could tell as soon as the babies were born if it was corrupt or not, and I did not know what they meant, how you could tell right away. Now I know; just look at the family tree.

Thanks for this thread - I am glad to hear this. I was wondering the same thing today, funnily enough. I have a good game going in Belladonna Cove too and was thinking about adding them as potential love interests and such!

One instance of game corruption isn't going to destroy your current game, unless it happens to be making Mrs. Crumplebottom a vampire. That's the quickest way to make your game into a Big Fiery Ball Visible From Space. I played my Ottomas "corrupt" neighborhood into the third generation before I got bored with it and started a new neighborhood. Corruption that results from unlinked memories and the like take time to build before the BFBVS happens.

Big Fiery Ball Visible From Space. It was a common saying on Pescado's forum (MATY); when the game becomes corrupted to the point that everything is messing up/messed up, your game has exploded and become a Big Fiery Ball Visible From Space.

Big Fiery Ball Visible From Space. It was a common saying on Pescado's forum (MATY); when the game becomes corrupted to the point that everything is messing up/messed up, your game has exploded and become a Big Fiery Ball Visible From Space.

I played a corrupt hood for years before I knew there was anything wrong, and even then, I still played it. None of it seemed all too game breaking for me. (My sims kicked a lot of tombstones throughout the years, LOL)

One instance of game corruption isn't going to destroy your current game, unless it happens to be making Mrs. Crumplebottom a vampire. That's the quickest way to make your game into a Big Fiery Ball Visible From Space. I played my Ottomas "corrupt" neighborhood into the third generation before I got bored with it and started a new neighborhood. Corruption that results from unlinked memories and the like take time to build before the BFBVS happens.

One instance is enough. Yes, it's not instant. And it's enough to corrupt a neighborhood. And when I said the game can't handle it, I did not mean that it would corrupt the game's files in Program Files.

And I'd imagine who had whose baby gets talked about.

I corrupted my alphabet legacy neighborhood (not through the Ottomas, though) around generation C and D. I experienced minor signs during generation E (people getting scared by a microwave, people going upstairs through the kitchen where there were no stairs, etc). I noticed two graves had disappeared and had two invisible Sims during generation I. 6-7 generations later. So I'm not surprised you made it 3 generations without issue. That's one of the points of the game that made it hard for people who were knowledgeable about the code to get it through to people that certain things corrupted the neighborhood. Because people did those things and then before the corruption caused issues, they got bored with the neighborhood and moved on. Or they were really lucky and it wasn't spreading.

I'm fully aware of what corruption is and what it's caused by. Because I did my research when my neighborhood went south. Mostly in my attempts to find a way to fix it.

One instance of game corruption isn't going to destroy your current game, unless it happens to be making Mrs. Crumplebottom a vampire. That's the quickest way to make your game into a Big Fiery Ball Visible From Space. I played my Ottomas "corrupt" neighborhood into the third generation before I got bored with it and started a new neighborhood. Corruption that results from unlinked memories and the like take time to build before the BFBVS happens.

One instance is enough. Yes, it's not instant. And it's enough to corrupt a neighborhood. And when I said the game can't handle it, I did not mean that it would corrupt the game's files in Program Files.

And I'd imagine who had whose baby gets talked about.

I corrupted my alphabet legacy neighborhood (not through the Ottomas, though) around generation C and D. I experienced minor signs during generation E (people getting scared by a microwave, people going upstairs through the kitchen where there were no stairs, etc). I noticed two graves had disappeared and had two invisible Sims during generation I. 6-7 generations later. So I'm not surprised you made it 3 generations without issue. That's one of the points of the game that made it hard for people who were knowledgeable about the code to get it through to people that certain things corrupted the neighborhood. Because people did those things and then before the corruption caused issues, they got bored with the neighborhood and moved on. Or they were really lucky and it wasn't spreading.

I'm fully aware of what corruption is and what it's caused by. Because I did my research when my neighborhood went south. Mostly in my attempts to find a way to fix it.

I know it doesn't corrupt the game files. I'm actually rather savvy with these things.

I'm not going to fight about this. I've been a player long time. I have my opinions based on experience, you have yours. The end.

So, what causes corruption, how do you know you have it, and how can I avoid and stop it?

--T

Never ever ever mess with certain NPCs like Mrs. Crumplebottom, the Charlatan.. because you won't just corrupt one neighborhood, you'll destroy ALL your hoods, current and future unless you reinstall your game. This is called game corruption. Back in 2008, I made the really dumb decision to add Mrs. Crumplebottom to the household just so I could purse-whip other sims. ALL my hoods went downhill. I could not enter in any of my hoods without crashing, so my entire game basically became a BFBVS.

The less dangerous type of corruption happens when you do silly stuff like deleting a sim, having your sim die with a grave in their inventory, moving an occupied lot to the Lots bin... This isn't as serious as the other one but it will eventually cost you your neighborhood. Pescado has some really helpful mods against that type of corruption. Some signs include toddlers and kids with inappropriate wants/aspirations, squiggly lines in thought bubbles, lots becoming unplayable etc..